The leaders of Britain and Germany have called for an international global warming summit aimed at working out a political agreement on the issue.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair and German Chancellor Angela Merkel met Tuesday in Berlin. They said they want a deal ready for the June summit of the Group of Eight industrialized nations.
Mr. Blair said world leaders need the answers to complicated technical questions on climate change, including the economic effects and what to do when the Kyoto treaty expires in 2012. He said it would be hard to get politicians to take action without answers to such technical problems.
Germany now holds the rotating chair of both the Group of Eight and the European Union. Ms. Merkel said global warming is at the top of the agenda of both groups.
Ms. Merkel said the G-8 plans to hold informal talks on global warming with such nations as China, India and Brazil.
The Kyoto agreement exempts developing nations from capping greenhouse gasses. President Bush has complained that some of these nations are major polluters, but are not being forced to cut emissions. The United States and Australia are two notable developed countries that have not ratified the agreement.